Next time when you on the train, take a break from your mobile devices and look around. Won’t you agree that the image above looks all too familar? Currently there are four billion mobile phones in the world and the smart phone has become an essential part of our lives. We all use it to entertain us on the go; watching a video clip on youtube to the simple task of Texting for communication. It is not surprising that with the increase in usage which will also cause a user would hunched over a mobile device, leading to poor posture. Are you one of them? If so, you may have ‘Texter’s Neck’.
‘Texter’s Neck’ (also known as anterior head syndrome) describes the position your neck is in when you are looking down at your phone. Flexing your head forward for long periods of time will affect your posture and can cause cervical spinal degeneration .
‘Texter’s Neck’ can cause neck and shoulder tension, pain or reduced motion, headaches, problems with balance, vision, hearing or even hormonal changes.. It can also cause arthritis. These can become chronic, and don’t usually get better on their own.
According to a 2011 study, over 90% of young adults used mobile phones daily at leisure and ~41.6% of all young adults used mobile phones daily at work. It also found that 65.0% of young women (30 years old or younger) had pretty often or more frequently experienced pain, numbness and aches in the neck, and 34.5% of young men had the same symptoms. Therefore, it is vital to appreciate that poor posture due to increase usage and reliance on mobile devices will continue to affect many in the coming years.
If left untreated permanent damage can happen including:
• Flattening of the spinal curve
• Onset of early arthritis
• Spinal degeneration
• Spinal misalignment
• Disc herniation
• Disc compression
• Muscle damage
• Nerve damage
• Loss of lung volume capacity
• Gastrointestinal problems
“Loss of the natural curve of the cervical spine leads to incrementally increased stresses about the cervical spine. Your spine is at its happiest when your ears fall on the same plane as your shoulders, and your shoulder blades are retracted. Without these adjustments, you put added stress on your spine,” wrote study author Dr. Kenneth K. Hansraj, a spinal and orthopaedic surgeon.
The solution to this problem is to hold your handheld device up so as to maintain the healthy lordotic curve of the cervical spine. There are also some simple neck exercises that you can do to relieve the neck stiffness and maintain the cervical spine mobility.
If you are suffering from neck and shoulder strain with stiffness, feel free to consult our physiotherapist at The Pain Relief Practice and know more about our treatments such as TECAR and Shockwave therapy which can free you from pain!
